On a lighter note

Preparing to bring a new child into your home brings with it all sorts of large and small tasks. For our family, one of those pieces is that each child has to have a Christmas stocking. Back when I was in high school (and had lots of spare time because although I worked about 20 hours a week, I was home schooled, so I learned to budget my time to give me time to pursue other interests) I cross-stitched a stocking for myself. (My mom did one for herself, Dad, and my sister). Of course, when I met Matt, and we began wedding plans, part of that was stitching one for him. As a mother of only one child, it was no trouble to make one more from the series for Owen, and then I managed to get one done for Leah, too, though not for her first Christmas! Thankfully, by the time Reuben came along, my mom had taken up knitting, and was not using her cross stitched stockings anymore because she had knit new ones, so I was able to pick my dad's name out of his and stitch "Reuben" into it. And then, because Rinnah was a girl, I could do the same with my mom's stocking. There. Done.

And then, when she was a few months old, I decided I'd better be a little more proactive. My life no longer had room for leisure activities like cross stitching on a regular basis, so I made the practical move of starting a stocking that I kept only in the van. I could work on it while I was waiting at the drive through at the bank, or when Matt was driving. The challenge was how to know which gender pattern to choose? 50/50 chance - I went for a girl. ;) Over the course of a year, stitching only in the van, or on rare occasions when we were visiting my parents and I didn't have work to do in the evenings, I managed to get the stocking about 85% done. And then we committed to K! Back to square one!

I've been working on K's stocking since December, 2012, hoping to get it done before he arrived home. I knew I'd have a lot of time on my first visit to him, both with the plane time, layovers, and down time at our hotel. So with that intro, here are before traveling and after traveling shots. ;)

After

Before

Still plenty to go, but I felt I made good use of the week. ;) A family reunion coming up at the end of this month should also give it a boost.